The Screwtape Letters–Relationship Drama and Life After Death

Relationship Drama

Letter Three of The Screwtape Letters is one of my favorites. It clarified how simple temptation could be for us to fall into it. In this letter, we meet another character named Glubose. He is the demon in charge of the human’s mother. Screwtape (Head demon of Hell) is instructing Wormwood (Screwtape’s nephew and intern of sorts) to advise Glubose to make sure the relationship between mother and son slowly deteriorates.

When we become Christians, we receive a new heart. This comes with unique desires and new motives. Imagine the possibilities of improved relationships when you start to love others as Jesus loves you! In our screwy letters, we are learning the tricks of the devil. Letter Three identifies four temptations Satan uses to try to ruin our relationships with loved ones.

Do not conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will test and approve what God’s will is–his good, pleasing and perfect will.

Romans 12:2

The Four Temptations

In Letter Three, we find the demons manipulating The Patient’s relationship with his mother. According to Screwtape, she is a challenging and nit-picky woman. This letter is a step-by-step guide for Wormwood on how to ruin relationships.

Step #1 – Make The Patient think being a Christian is an internal and grand spiritual thing separate from his day-to-day life.

If we only change the amount of time we spend in church, follow religious rituals, or think about theology, we miss the point. Screwtape instructs the demons to start using everyday, maybe slightly annoying, habits to cause arguments in the home. The Patient will never know that while he is focused on his inner spiritual life, his daily life and relationships are falling apart.

Is there a particular habit you see in others that drives you crazy? If you asked my husband or sons what habit of mine drives them nuts, they would tell you it is my “eye-roll.” They claim to know when I have rolled my eyes at them even when they cannot see me. They find it hurtful and dismissive when my response to their genuine concerns is to roll my eyes.

The people in my family and how I treat them are important to God. When we attempt to keep our spiritual life separate from our day-to-day lives, we have fallen into the temptation of disobeying God in how we treat others. Do you keep your spiritual life separate from your day-to-day life?

Be kind and compassionate to one another, forgiving each other, just as in Christ, God forgave you.

Ephesians 4:32

Our inward conversion should produce outward change in our attitude, actions, and behaviors.

Step #2 – Render the man’s prayers for his mother innocuous. The Patient should be encouraged to pray for her soul rather than her rheumatism. To pray for God to cure her of her annoying habits and ignore her genuine need for healing in the body.

His (The Patient) attention will be kept on what he regards as her sins, by which, with a little guidance from you, he can be induced to mean any of her actions which are inconvenient or irritating to himself.

Screwtape

Imagine a prayer that goes like this:  Dear God, please fix my mother. She is driving me crazy and making my life hard. She keeps rolling her eye’s at me and expects me to know how she feels. She must have something deeply wrong with her, can you please show her how bad she is and fix her? Amen.

How should we approach God when praying for others? In Luke 18:9-14, we read the story of the Pharisee and a tax collector. The Pharisee brags to God about how good he is. The Tax Collectors beats his chest and cries out for God’s mercy.

What if The Patient had prayed for his mother’s rheumatism instead? What if the patient had prayed for his own change of heart instead?

Step #3 – Exaggerate the annoying things about others’ mannerisms.

When two humans have lived together for many years it usually happens that each has tones of voice and expressions of face which are almost unendurably irritating to the other. Work on that.

Screwtape

My husband and I recently argued. Boy was the devil intent in having us nit-pick each other’s annoying qualities. By doing this, we missed discussing the serious issue at hand. Because we were both so intent on getting our point across, we missed the point entirely.

Step #4 – Twist the perception of normally harmless phrases, rendering them insulting and annoying. Create a double standard where The Patients’ own words or expressions are acceptable, but his mothers are made to tick him off.

In civilized life domestic hatred usually expresses itself by saying things which would appear quite harmless on paper but in such a voice, or at such a moment, that they are not far short of a blow in the face.

Screwtape

The saying, “It’s not what you said, it’s how you said it,” comes to mind. After the argument mentioned above, my husband shared with me that I can be too blunt and need to soften my approach. (Luckily, he said this after we had made up!) But he is correct. I was using my tone and voice to make him angry.

Gracious words are a honeycomb, sweet to the soul and healing to the bones.

Proverbs 16:24

Here are my four takeaways in winning the battle:

• Your spiritual life is your real life.
• Pray humbly.
• Don’t take things personally.
• Be nice.

The Other Side

We will finish this series off with a look at the final letter in the book, The Screwtape Letters. Here, in the end, The Patient has escaped safely into Heaven, and Wormwood is being told there will be hell to pay for his incompetence as a demon. After all, Screwtape hates to see “human vermin” being cleansed by the blood of Christ.

The man has been killed in the war during an air raid upon his hometown. He dies instantly and, in the opinion of Screwtape, got off too easily.

No gradual misgivings, no doctor’s sentence, no nursing home, no operating theater, no false hopes of life: sheer, instantaneous liberation.

Screwtape

Why do you think Screwtape is upset about The Patient dying with limited struggle? What opportunities were missed to lead the human to hell?

Where, O death, is your victory? Where, O death, is your sting?

1 Corinthians 15:55

Have you ever wondered what happens in the moments after death?  Job 19:25-27, says, “I know that my redeemer lives and that in the end he will stand on the earth. And after my skin has been destroyed, yet in my flesh I will see God; I myself will see him with my own eyes – I, and not another. How my heart yearns within me!” Death is but a moment, life is eternity with Christ.

Screwtape continues to explain to Wormwood what has happened to The Patient right after death when the man saw God. Upon first sight of God, the Patient falls flat on his face and gives over all his sins. He fully submits to the mercy and love of God as he enters into God’s presence. For Wormwood, being in the presence of God is blinding and painful.

Final Signature

Throughout the book, Screwtape has signed each letter as “Your affectionate uncle.” The signature changes in the last letter. The final letter is signed “Your increasingly and ravenously affectionate uncle.” Do you want to know why?

The rule of Hell is to either bring souls for the devils to feast upon or be feasted upon oneself. Screwtape will now consume the failed Wormwood.

How will this change your view of spiritual warfare?

From the first time I read The Screwtape Letters, God opened my eyes to the realities of spiritual warfare. We want to think the enemy is a giant scary monster you would never misinterpret. We miss so many of the enemy’s tactics because we expect to notice them. But in reality, he came and went without attention.

There is a point in the final letter when The Patient has just died and experiences a sudden clearing of his eyes.

There was a sudden clearing of his eyes (was there not?) as he saw you for the first time, and recognized the part you had had in him and knew that you had it no longer.

Screwtape

I believe C.S. Lewis wrote this humorous account of temptation so we could experience a clearing of our eyes before death. So we could triumph over sin today and fall flat before God, landing in His mercy and love. How have your eyes been opened?

Heavenly Father, thank you for your guidance through this book and study of the enemy’s battle plan. We ask for wisdom, knowledge, and understanding to fight our daily battles. Our strategy is to walk close to you, never wandering off. Keep us near. In Jesus’ name. Amen.